Last Love | Book 3

Chapter 35

(Josh)

I open our bedroom door and peek in, checking on Jen. She's still fast sleep in our bed, her hair tangled up around her face and one leg wrapped around my pillow. I laugh to myself as I silently close the door again. I find the way she sleeps when I'm not in the bed with her to be very entertaining and extremely adorable. She's been napping quite often recently, but I don't mind. The baby's been home for a while, but she's still recovering from giving birth and having to get up in the middle of the night constantly has been difficult for both of us. I walk down the hallway, stopping in each room to gather up dirty laundry into the basket in my hands. Then, once I'm confident I've gotten everything, I take it into the laundry room to wash it. I open up the washer with my hand that I'm not using to hold the basket and dump it's contents into the washer. Then I pour in the detergent and start it.

In the living room, Ava and Cole play with their toys while Wyatt watches from his bouncy chair, as I clean up around them. I take their dishes from lunch into the kitchen and set them in the sink. As I'm starting to wash the dishes, my phone rings. I quickly dry my hands off and answer it. "Hey, what's up, mom?" I ask, seeing it's her number calling. "I just wanted to check up on you guys. How's it going? Is Jen doing okay? What's Wyatt doing?" She questions. "We're doing fine, mom. I was just washing dishes when you called." I say. "Washing dishes? I'm in shock." I laugh. "I've done dishes plenty of times before." I walk into the living room to check on the kids. I can't do the rest of the dishes until she hangs up anyway. "I know, I know. I was just joking. So, where's Jen?" She asks. "She's upstairs taking a nap. Has been since about noon." I inform her. "Oh. That's nice that you're doing the dishes and everything for her then." She says. "Yeah. I guess. I don't really mind doing it. It's not hard." I brush off her compliment. "Yeah. It's not." She agrees. "What are the kids doing? Has Wyatt been doing okay?" She asks. "Uh....Ava and Cole are in the living room playing with trucks and watching tv. Wyatt's doing fine. He's actually just starting to fall asleep now so I guess I'll need to move him to his crib." I walk over to Wyatt and pick him up out of his bouncy chair. "Alright, well I guess I'll leave you to that. Just call me if you need anything or if you just want to talk, okay?" I smile. "Okay. Love you, mom." I say. "Love you too." We hang up and I set the phone down. Then I carry Wyatt to his bedroom and put him down for a nap.

I return to the kitchen and finish washing the dishes. Then I wipe all the counters off and start looking through the cabinets for something to make for dinner. I find a box of lasagna and decide on making it. As I'm putting the lasagna in the oven, my phone rings again. Who could it be this time? I grab it off the counter and see it's Jen's mother. Why's she calling me? "Hey." I answer  it.  "Hey, Josh. How are you?" She asks. "I'm fine. Just started making dinner. How are you?" I reply, leaning up against the counter. "I'm good. I was actually just calling about Jen. I tried to call her a couple times earlier but she hasn't answered." She explains. "Oh, that's probably cause she's asleep. If it's important I could wake her up?" I offer. "No, it's fine I'll let her call me back later. Why's she asleep? It's almost six."   Six? I look over at the clock. She's right. I could've sworn it was earlier than that. "She's just taking a nap. I'm sure she'll be up soon." I say. "Oh, okay. I guess I'll talk to you both later then." I check the timer on the oven. "Yeah. Bye." I hang up and start getting plates and forks out for dinner.

I pull the lasagna out of the oven, burning my finger in the process, and put some on a plate for Ava and Cole. I sit in the living room with them while they eat. Then I take their plates when they finish and put them in the sink. As I'm getting a plate ready for myself, I hear footsteps behind me. I turn around and see Jen standing behind me. "Hey. I thought you'd be out all night." Her hair's all ruffled like she's been tossing and turning. She must've had a rough sleep. "I smelled the food." She smiles at me. "I'll get you some. Have a seat." I set both our plates down on the table and sit down with her. "I had the craziest dream earlier." She rubs her eyes and picks up her fork. "Yeah? What kind of dream?" I ask. "Not the kind you talk about at the dinner table." She smirks at me. "Oh, now I'm interested."I say. "Tell me about it." She shakes her head. "Later." She winks at me, then goes back to eating. "Did you do the laundry while I was asleep?" She asks. "Yeah and the dishes." I answer. "I'm sorry you've had to do all the work around here. I've just been exhausted lately. I promise tomorrow I'll help out." She assures me, looking guilty. "It's okay. I don't mind doing it." She nods. "Thank you. But seriously tomorrow is my turn." She insists. "Okay." I agree, knowing I'll probably end up doing most of the work again tomorrow. We spend the rest of dinner trying to tell the stupidest jokes possible to make each other laugh. She somehow always ends up telling the best jokes.

A/N: this was probably really boring but there's only one more chapter left in this book after this and then the epilogue and it'll be over.